In the 3 billion years since life first appeared on Earth plants have evolved driven by survival. They have been subjected to fire, floods, glaciers, drought, predators, competition and disease. Ninety-nine percent of all species that have ever lived on Earth have gone extinct. Nevertheless, today, plants make up 80 percent of the Earth’s biomass.

In 2012, the Santa Fe Master Gardener Association, a predecessor to the SFEMG, began work on a new demonstration project: the Cactus Garden. With the help of many volunteers, Project Leader Jill Foster designed and built a compact garden at the west end of the larger parking lot at 3229 Rodeo Road. At the time, there were few large cactus gardens in Santa Fe, and her objective was to show how these native plants could enhance a landscape.

Santa Fe County Sustainability staff, county commissioners, SFEMG volunteers and local permaculturist Reese Baker all spoke to a chilly audience on this cold spring day. In his brief talk, Baker pointed out that a relatively small percentage of the 6 billion gallons of precipitation that fall in the city each year stays in our ecosystem. If we were to harvest this rainwater, we would decrease erosion, add beauty to our landscapes and recharge our precious groundwater. It isn’t as hard as it sounds.